Leading up to the war, Thoreau believed in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s teachings that change and reform begin with the way an individual chooses to live one’s life. As a result, Thoreau refused to pay taxes in objection to this power grab.

Therefore, when the American government declared war on Mexico in 1846, while he was living at Walden Pond, Thoreau saw the war as an American plot to seize land from Mexico and spread slavery. Thoreau was an ardent abolitionist during a time when slavery was an increasingly polarizing issue for most of the nation. Thoreau died of tuberculosis in May 1862. For the rest of his writing career, he journaled extensively about nature and continued publishing and revising essays about issues important to him, such as the abolition of slavery and the importance of practicing civil disobedience. After leaving the pond, he published his books and found modest success. Over the next two years, surrounded by nature, he wrote his first two books and tried to live by Transcendentalist doctrines. Thoreau moved into the house on July 4th, 1845. Later, with Emerson’s help, Thoreau built a small house on land that Emerson owned on the shores of Walden Pond. At the same time, he learned all about the philosophy of Transcendentalism, a mode of living that stressed the importance of putting spiritual concerns over material ones. Thoreau began writing seriously under Emerson’s guidance and began to publish some poems and essays. Though Thoreau had become an informal mentee of Emerson’s upon his graduation from Harvard, it wasn’t until he began living with Emerson over the next two years that he fully immersed himself in Emerson’s teachings. Shortly after the closure of the school, Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the foremost thinkers and philosophers of Thoreau’s time (who also happened to be his neighbor, mentor, and friend) invited Thoreau to live with him as a handy man. By this point, Thoreau had already begun to show interest in different pursuits, primarily nature and writing. Thoreau returned to the education field when he decided to start a school in Concord with his brother in 1839, before closing it permanently two years later, when his brother fell ill.

He briefly took a job as a teacher before starting work at his father’s pencil factory.

Though he suffered from medical and financial hardships during his undergraduate years, he ultimately graduated with distinction in 1937. He finished his primary and secondary education in Concord before completing his undergraduate education at Harvard.

Henry David Thoreau was born on Jin Concord Massachusetts, to John Thoreau, a pencil maker, and Cynthia Dunbar.

Thoreau and civil disobedience